What will an A-Level in English Literature offer you as a school leaver?

Personal Poetry

I never really connected with one particular poem until earlier this year. I have always enjoyed reading and studying poetry but it never truly had affected me when reading it. I could never really relate to it personally until this particular moment in my life.

When reading this poem it was at a particularly challenging time and it was this poem that really helped me to get through this difficult period. A friend posted it on Facebook and I connected with it instantly. The poem was ‘Death is Nothing at All’ by Henry Scott Holland. My Granddad had recently passed away and when I read this poem I had him in mind. It was the first time that I had connected to a poem emotionally and personally and I will never forget the way in which it helped me to deal with his passing.

 Death is Nothing at All

Death is nothing at all.
I have only slipped away to the next room.
I am I and you are you.
Whatever we were to each other,
That, we still are.

Call me by my old familiar name.
Speak to me in the easy way
which you always used.
Put no difference into your tone.
Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.

Laugh as we always laughed
at the little jokes we enjoyed together.
Play, smile, think of me. Pray for me.
Let my name be ever the household word
that it always was.
Let it be spoken without effect.
Without the trace of a shadow on it.

Life means all that it ever meant.
It is the same that it ever was.
There is absolute unbroken continuity.
Why should I be out of mind
because I am out of sight?

I am but waiting for you.
For an interval.
Somewhere. Very near.
Just around the corner.

All is well.

Henry Scott Holland

Since reading this poem I have found a new connection with all types of poetry. When teaching it I want my pupils to understand the story and emotions behind the poem. For me personally I never thought that I would enjoy teaching poetry as much as I do. I enjoy the ways in which a poem can mean so many different things to so many different people. I like to take in different interpretations and meanings and compare them to what I originally thought. When teaching poetry I am able to look at the ways in which people can connect to a poem and how it can relate to them personally. I just hope that one day my pupils will understand the impact that a poem can really have.